Agenda item

To receive a presentation from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership of Clinical Commissioning Groups providing an update on CAMHS.

The Committee received an update on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) (Item 6 in the Minute Book) from representatives of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s).  This update was at the request of the Committee following on from an earlier presentation to the Committee in November 2018 where the Committee had concerns in relation to waiting times for CAHMS.

Representatives of the CCG’s provided a brief overview of the presentation slides and a number of key issues were explained.  Members heard that CAMHS continued to have more challenges, and demand for mental health services was increasing but ongoing work had continued to address these challenges and demand.  This included: work over the summer with key stakeholders, additional funding, skype based interventions and submission of funding bids for eating disorders and mental health  It was also highlighted that the CAMHS website continued to be developed, the promotion of the ThinkNinja app in educating young people about mental health and parent-carer events.

In concluding, it was noted that representatives of the CCG’s continued to work in close partnership with the provider to address these ongoing challenges.

In response to questions, Members heard:

·         That CAMHS waiting times had increased, which was also a national issue, and work was being undertaken for additional investment into the service, with ongoing work to identify and bid for further funding.

·         That the aim for the CCG’s was for prevention where possible, and ways of accessing help before children and young people reached the stage where CAMHS was required.

·         That within CAMHS, there were specialist training programmes in therapy, and further information on staff training would be provided in a future update to members.

·         That there had been some recent issues with staff retention, and areas such as work pressures and ways to retain staff were being explored.

·         That in relation to children and young people with eating disorders, work had been undertaken regionally with NHS England through the Strategic Clinical Network to explore closer collaboration around earlier interventions, which should lessen the need for inpatient beds.  This had also been piloted locally and was being evaluated.

·         That the CCG’s would liaise with Children’s Services to determine how many children and young people assessed by CAMHS required additional support, for example an EHCP, or short break activities.

·         That a national pilot programme had been rolled out to two schools in the Havant and Gosport area to help with early prevention in relation to CAMHS, and a bid would be put forward to increase this number, working closely with health partners and schools.

It was proposed by Councillor Kirsty North and seconded by Councillor Marge Harvey that a further update be presented to the Committee in 12 months’ time and this was agreed by Members.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the Children and Young People Select Committee received and noted the overview provided in the presentation.

b)    That the Children and Young People Committee requested that a further update be brought to the Committee in 12 months’ time.